Author Archive:
Caroline Fiennes
A welcome public row about donor effectiveness
Well done Malcolm Gladwell. On Wednesday this week, Harvard announced its biggest gift ever, $400m from the American hedge fund manager John Paulson for its school of engineering and applied sciences. Gladwell ridiculed it: ‘It …
Is Constituent Voice a proxy for randomized controlled trials?
The short answer is no. At first sight, it seems that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and Constituent Voice (CV) could be substitutes for each other because they both seek to ascertain a programme’s effect. In …
Reflections from Emirates Foundation Youth Philanthropy Summit
Begun only last year, Emirates Foundation’s annual summit has already become a fixture, and it’s huge. It started as a way for Emirates Foundation to gather insights to improve its own work – running a …
Frankly speaking: C&A Foundation tells it like it is
‘We take seriously our responsibility for our employees, customers and everyone who is part of our supply chain,’says the international fashion retailer C&A on its website. So says almost every other international company. But they …
Moving the tanker
‘We are a tiny, tiny little organization,’ says Bill Gates about the largest foundation that the world has ever seen. He’s right: the Gates Foundation’s annual grantmaking is only a tiny fraction of governments’ budgets. …
Faster, higher, stronger: Olympic lessons for philanthropy
Coming from ancient Greece, even the word ‘philanthropy’ hints at similarities with the Olympic Games. And there is much which philanthropists, donors, charities and those of us who support and guide them can learn from …
A grand unified theory of effective giving starts with beneficiaries
‘What do you think of our team?’ asked the chairman of a new foundation. I hesitated, fearing he would dislike my answer. The trustees were experts in only two of their three focus areas; none …